| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| The Chess-Board |
| | | Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st earl of Lytton (1831–91) |
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| MY little love, do you remember, | |
| Ere we were grown so sadly wise, | |
| Those evenings in the bleak December, | |
| Curtain’d warm from the snowy weather, | |
| When you and I play’d chess together, | 5 |
| Checkmated by each other’s eyes? | |
| Ah, still I see your soft white hand | |
| Hovering warm o’er Queen and Knight! | |
| Brave Pawns in valiant battle stand; | |
| The double Castles guard the wings; | 10 |
| The Bishop, bent on distant things, | |
| Moves, sidling through the fight. | |
| Our fingers touch; our glances meet, | |
| And falter; falls your golden hair | |
| Against my cheek; your bosom sweet | 15 |
| Is heaving. Don the field, your Queen | |
| Rides slow her soldiery all between, | |
| And checks me unaware. | |
| Ah me! the little battle’s done, | |
| Dispers’d is all its chivalry; | 20 |
| Full many a move, since then, have we | |
| ’Mid Life’s perplexing checkers made, | |
| And many a game with Fortune play’d,— | |
| What is it we have won? | |
| This, this at least—if this alone;— | 25 |
| That never, never, never more, | |
| As in those old still nights of yore | |
| (Ere we were grown so sadly wise), | |
| Can you and I shut out the skies, | |
| Shut out the world, and wintry weather, | 30 |
| And, eyes exchanging warmth with eyes, | |
| Play chess, as then we play’d, together! | |
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